ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih is an exceptional speaker and has a great track record of introducing products that are quickly found to be market place disruptor. When we heard that he would be announcing another game-changer for today’s mobile lifestyle, it garnered our full attention. That device is the ASUS Transformer Book T100, which is said to be the Eee PC reinvented as a killer 2-in-2 ultraportable.

The ASUS Transformer Book T100 is a 10.1-inch ultraportable with an Intel Atom ‘Bay Trail’ quad-core processor and detachable HD display that can be used as a standalone Windows 8.1 tablet. This tablet uses the Intel Atom Bay Trail-T Z3740 quad-core processor that runs at 1.8 GHz. We posted up a performance analysis of the Intel Atom Processor Z3770 (Bay Trail) today and we can tell you that the performance is looking good. ASUS said that the T100 can last up to 11 hours on battery power, so get ready for some ‘all-day’ tablet use!

ASUS Transformer Book T100 Specifications:

US SPECIFICATIONS

Processor

Intel Atom Bay Trail-T Z3740 Quad Core

Operating system

Window 8.1 with MS Office Home & Student 2013

Display

10.1-inch HD (1366*768) IPS with multi-touch

Graphics

Intel HD Graphics

Memory

2GB

Storage

32GB/64GB eMMC with ASUS WebStorage

Webcam

1.2MP camera

Connectivity

Tablet

1 x Micro USB (support charging and usb device)

1 x Micro HDMI

1 x Micro SD Card Reader

1 x Audio Jack: Head phone/Mic

1 x Home key

Dock:

USB3.0, Clickpad, Keyboard

Audio

Stereo speakers with ASUS SonicMasterTechnology

Internal array mic

Battery

31Whr (11 hrs)

Size& weight

10.4” x 6.7” x 0.93” ; 2.4lbs

Tablet only: 10.4” x 6.7” x 0.41”; 1.2lbs

The ASUS Transformer Book T100 is that it is priced at $349 for the 32GB version and $399 for the larger 64GB version. Both come with unlimited ASUS WebStorage service for a year and will be available on October 18th, 2013.

The first Eee PC was a milestone in the personal computer business when it was introduced in 2007 and it cost $399. The netbook craze has certainly come and gone, but the performance of Bay Trail now for the same price you a touch device with much more functionality and without many of the sacrifices that were needed to bring a netbook to market so long ago. You want an affordable device, but you need it to be fully functional! ASUS thinks that the Transformer Book T100 is that device and we can’t wait to get one to find out if that is the case.

ASUS also will be coming out with a larger version of the T100 that is called the Transformer Book T300 with a detachable 13.3-inch Full HD IPS multi-touch display that acts as a standalone Windows 8 tablet. No pricing was given just yet on that tablet.